Automated monitoring of wildlife is known in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 5,956,463 discloses an automated system for monitoring wildlife auditory data and recording same for subsequent analysis and identification. The system includes one or more microphones coupled to a recording apparatus for recording wildlife vocalizations in digital format. The resultant recorded data is preprocessed, segmented and analyzed by means of a neural network to identify respective species.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,377,233 discloses an apparatus for detecting and identifying birds based on an electronic analysis of their calls and songs and a method for doing so by utilizing a step-by-step hierarchical method of breaking down bird vocalizations according to order, family and species of the specific bird. Several embodiments of the apparatus are disclosed, including a hand held computational device, microphone, audio capture card, user application software and a collection of prerecorded audio data.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,117,149 discloses a system for classifying a sound source. The system matches the acoustic input to a number of signal models, one per source class, and produces a score for each signal model. The sound source is declared to be of the same class as that of the model with the best score if that score is sufficiently high. In the preferred embodiment, classification is accomplished by the use of a signal model augmented by learning. The input signal can represent human speech, in which case the goal is to identify the speaker in a text-independent manner. The system can be used to classify any type of live or recorded acoustic data, such as musical instruments, birds, engine or machine noise or human singing.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,535,131 discloses a device for automatically identifying sound patterns accompanying physiological processes and activities of an animal in general, and uttered by an animal in distress in particular, especially of a pregnant animal going into labor, for storing, analyzing and processing data related to the identified sound patterns and any deviations, and for providing an attendant with alert signals and data according to pre-programmed requirements. The device includes an audio receiving device placed in proximity to the animal for receiving sound patterns. A communication interface communicates with a remote communication unit.
U.S. Published Patent Application Serial No. 2010/0211387 discloses a computer implemented speech processing system. The system extracts first and second voice segments from first and second audio signals originating from first and second microphones. The first and second voice segments correspond to a voice sound originating from a common source. An estimated source location is generated based on a relative energy of the first and second voice segments and/or a correlation of the first and second voice segments. A determination whether the voice segment is desired or undesired is made based on the estimated source location.